Has anyone started drinking diet pop again?

Before surgery I drank LOTS of diet mountain dew.  I stopped before the surgery but it has gradually krept back into my daily life.  I love the stuff and working mids I strive for the caffeine.  I don't seem to have any troubles when I drink it.  With that being said I still want to stop again.

:-(

I think you'll get alot of different opinions on this. My Dr.s Program bans soda for life. I too was a chain soda drinker. I had a 20oz diet mountain dew with every meal and diet coke a couple of times a day. I estimated that I used to drink 120oz of soda a day.

I went cold turkey after my initial consult with my surgeon December 2009. It was hard in the beginning but I got used to it.

I replaced the soda with Crystal light and Diet Snapple. I should drink more plain water but I need the flavor. I do believe that I could drink soda if I wanted too but to be honest it doesn't appeal to me anymore. There's been alot of negative publicity about the effects on health that diet soda may have. Also varying opinions of the effect on the sleeve.

I've made a conscious choice to leave the stuff alone. I really don't need it in my life. It's not with the risk.

What Mikey said. I gave up soda years ago. I don't remember making a conscious choice, but it just happened. That was one less thing that I had to give up prior to surgery. I have no desire to add empty calories back into my life. Plus, there isn't one positive thing about it.

If you want caffeine, have a cup of coffee. Some might disagree, but it is the lesser of the evils, if your sleeve can handle the acidty. Tea has some caffeine. Green tea is good for you and has some caffeine. You could always put ice in it, if you wanted it cold.

I tried some flavored seltzer water several months ago. It was horrible and my sleeve definitely didn't like the carbonation.

Doesn't Mountain Dew have a lot of calories and sugar, besides caffeine?

I was never a huge soda drinker before.  Sure, I enjoyed a Coke with a fast-food meal as much as the next gal, but I generally didn't keep it in the house.  When Dr. Alvarez said no soda, it was no biggie. Then a year and a half post-op, I had spinal surgery (Sorry if y'all have heard my story a gazillion times!), lots of complications, and ended up in a nursing home for over a month.

While I was in the nursing home, they could NOT understand my food needs, and I lost an alarming amount of weight.  Skin and bones, and sick as a dog!  One day a nurse brought me a Coke.  I thought, oh what the heck, at least it's calories!  So I took a sip.  It was so refreshing!  Drank the whole thing.  My sleeve didn't explode :-)  And I felt SOOOOO much better afterwards.  So I started drinking one every day.

When I got home, I was trying to put some weight back on, and I got back into the junk food big time, soda included.  Once I regained the 25+ pounds I lost in the nursing home, I was so hooked on the crap that I couldn't (or wouldn't) get a grip, and I gained 30 pounds more.

Now I've gotten a fairly good grip on the food and have re-lost over 20 of those 30 pounds, but I'm hooked on the soda!!!  I'm drinking mostly Coke Zeros, which are sweetened with Splenda, but sodas are still awful for us!  The only redeeming value to soda is its taste.  

And one other thing about my Coke Zeros which is making it virtually impossible to get off them: I'm on a dang bucketful of medications, because next month I'm going to have to have more spinal surgery, and one of the side effects of almost all the meds is dry mouth.  It is unbelievable ... and I suck down water all day long.  But the only thing that really helps the dry mouth, gives me a few minutes peace from the horrible, horrible thirst, is soda!  With water, the minute I swallow it, my tongue feels like the Sahara; with my CZs, I get some relief.  *SIGH*  If it weren't for that, I feel confident that I could get off them, but nothing else helps.

So YES, I'm drinking diet soda.  And I hate that I am.  Once I get through this next surgery, and hopefully get off these awful meds, maybe I can get rid of the sodas.  Oh please!!!!

--Dorothy 

Have you ever tried something like Biotine products? The products are made for dry mouth and come in a mouthwash, gum, toothpaste, etc. There are products available for dry mouth in the dental hygiene section of any grocery store.

Yep, I've tried it all.  Nothing.  The dentist gave me samples of all the Biotine stuff, and I've used Oasis, and ... um ... some other things that I can't even remember.  No good at all.  DANG!
--Dorothy

That's just awful Dorothy:(

I use the Biotene that Gail mentioned.  I don't know if it will help, but it is for dry mouth.  I actually use it because it is free from Sodium Laurel sulfate, which is in most toothpastes and causes a rash around my mouth.  The SLS is the agent that makes the toothpaste foam up, so Biotene doesn't have that foaming action that the other toothpastes have.

However, my sister uses Biotene because she has dry mouth from meds, and she says it helps her a lot.  She also has Reynauds which gives her a dry mouth.  You might give it a try.

So sorry about the soda thing.  Have you tried sucking ice chips?  Dialysis patients have drinking restrictions and dry mouths, so many of them put ice chips in a cup and suck on them all day.

I was not a soda drinker before or after surgery, only as an occasional mixer for adult beverages.. most (fake or real) were just way too sweet for my tastes.. but I did drink fizzy water esp in the summer, cut half & half with Crystal light or not.. I still do this. Mineral water with a squeeze of lime or cheapo non-sweetened plain or flavored water is something I break up the monotony with at times.

I love my caffeine though too.. and Crystal Light does have caffeinated mixes now, as does several other companies- some even add more "actives" like herbs & vites and such to them.. between these and my coffee, I am usually good to go.

No, worse. . . I'm drinking REAL COKE. I was a Coke lover before surgery, and I wish I had never started again. It's a slippery slope. In the process now of breaking this bad habit. I think a lot of others followed after it. .

My doctor gave me a list of reasons why I should never drink it again.  It was pretty eye opening and made me think of it as pure poison for my body.  I haven't touched the stuff since then.  I don't remember all the reasons that were on there, but let me tell you, the list was long and very clear. It was one of those things that made you go, Oh, I get it now.  It was not just all about weight loss, a great deal of it had to do with other damage that soda was causing.  If you can, stop.  Get your caffeine in other ways, coffee comes to mind.  My doctor is not against coffee at all.